Archive for the ‘Capitol Hill’ Category

Barack Obama wasn’t a senator long enough to become an experienced and seasoned lawmaker. He is not really a professional legislator. He is a community organizer. But he is a wonderful talker: and that has catapulted him, to a great measure, into the White House.

So he turned the task of making the stimulus over to Nancy Pelosi, who ignored the preident’s vow of bipartisanship and hushed or ignored House Republicans.

President Obama knew his oratorical gifts would get us through.

But now maybe not….

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By Jeanne Cummings
Politico
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At this crucial juncture in the push to pass an economic recovery package, President Obama finds himself in the most unlikely of places: He is losing the message war.

Despite Obama’s sky high personal approval ratings, polls show support has declined for his stimulus bill since Republicans and their conservative talk-radio allies began railing against what they labeled as pork barrel spending within it.

President Barack Obama speaks about business CEO’s compensation in the White House in Washington February 4, 2009.(Larry Downing/Reuters)

The sheer size of it – hovering at about $900 billion — has prompted more protests that are now causing some moderate and conservative Democrats to flinch and, worse, hesitate.

The anxiety over lost momentum seemed almost palpable this week as the president in television interviews voiced frustration with his White House’s progress and the way his recovery program was being demonized as a Democratic spending frenzy.

In Obama’s own words in an NBC interview, it’s his job to “get this thing back on track.”

But this is unfamiliar turf for a team that achieved near epic status for its communication skills during the presidential campaign. They’ve rarely ever had to play catch-up.

With the president’s gifted oratory and a technologically savvy team, the Obama camp was able to seize control of the national conversation as early as April and never fully relinquish it right through his Inaugural Address two weeks ago.

To be sure, some of Obama’s headaches stem from the normal dysfunction that occurs when a White House is in transition. Phones don’t work, chains of command are fuzzy, and there are formalities that need tending to.

But the Obama team also made its own mistakes. The president’s troubled cabinet nominees added to the cacophony that at times drowned out the White House economic messages in the past two weeks.
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And it seems more apparent each day that the nascent Obama Administration isn’t fully prepared for the task at hand.

The president’s decision to push through a massive stimulus bill, while perhaps unavoidable, is forcing the much-vaunted Chicago crowd to adapt at lightning speed to its more skillful adversaries on Capitol Hill, while at the same time taking a crash course on harnessing the full power of bully pulpit. If he doesn’t figure it out soon, Obama is likely to find out that his stimulus package looks very different than he had in mind indeed.

The Jetsons versus the Flinstones

Obama’s campaign was lauded for its visionary use of modern tools for old-fashioned politics. Through the Internet, it recruited supporters, collected dollars, rallied supporters and organized get-out-the vote operations.

But when these modern heroes arrived at the White House, it was like the lights all went out.
Their contact with their millions-fold supporters was cut off, literally, as e-mail systems broke down and ‘The List’ of political supporters was blocked at the iron gate.

To meet government ethics rules, the campaign operation and its grassroots army were forced to de-camp to the Democratic National Committee, robbing the president of one of his most potent political weapons just as the stimulus bill was under consideration in the House.

But while the White House team struggled to adapt, it was business as usual on Capitol Hill for Republicans.

They could practically sleep-walk through their attack plan once House Democrats began to fill in Obama’s broad outlines for a stimulus with a few pet projects of their own.

It required two simple steps: Scream pork, call Rush Limbaugh.

They even could have even used a rotary phone.

The result: Every House Republican saw a free pass and voted against the first version of the bill.
The outcome is not surprising. Obama had roughly 90 people working at his headquarters on Internet outreach and new technology projects, observes Joe Trippi, a Democratic operative who broke new ground on modern campaigning during Howard Dean’s 2004 Democratic primary bid.

Even with closet-sized spaces, the White House can only accommodate about only about 200 or so people for jobs ranging from national security to health care reform to Internet guru.

The Obama team “built this incredible campaign and now they have these ridiculously primitive tools. The communication tools they mastered don’t exist in the White House. It’s like they are in a cave,” said Trippi.

“Then there are the masters of the Stone Age and they are doing a good job,” he added.

Learning to play well with others

During the campaign, Obama had complete control over his message. Now, he doesn’t and that’s not an easy adjustment for any president.

Obama must suddenly yield turf to both Capitol Hill and outside interest groups who are trying to help. The results in both cases can be messy.

In a clear effort to show the world that there is a difference between terrorists and Muslims and Republicans, President Obama is on a media blitz that is not to be out done by Rod Blagojevich.

“I have Muslims in my family. Maybe even a Republican….”

O.K., don’t take this TOO seriously, but seriously enough.

The White House proudly discussed the President’s “outreach” to Al-Arabiya satellite television network. The effort is meant to show Muslims that America knows not all are terrorists and America embraces Muslims just like other peoples from around the globe.

Almost in the same breath, White House media advisors said the president would be “reaching out” to Republicans on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.

A friend at the staunchly Republican Heritage Foundation told us, “Well, we are pleased the President realizes we are not all terrorists…”

President Obama’s outreach to both Republics and and Muslims are serious efforts though not tied into one program.

“We know Republicans are not bad people,” a White House friend said.

When the president visits the capitol today he’ll meet separately with House and Senate Republicans. Democrats will not be allowed in those meetings.

The White House said the president is seeking Republican input and urging bipartisanship.

So far, Republican lawmakers have been cool to the president’s lobbying on the stimulus bill. He visits Capitol Hill on Tuesday.

By Janet Hook and Peter Nicholas
Los Angeles Times
January 27, 2009

Reporting from Washington — President Obama travels to the Capitol today to meet with House and Senate Republicans, the latest in a series of high-profile efforts to reach across the aisle and make good on his campaign promise to swim against the partisan tide that has flooded Washington for decades.

So far, his gestures have shown few signs of success, as Republicans have continued to snipe at his signature initiative — legislation to stimulate the economy — and even to question the sincerity of his efforts. In the stimulus bill’s first two tests last week, it passed two committees without a single Republican vote.